Space-Honk Space-Honkkk! Space Run Galaxy Released

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E what now? No no, come on, get out of here with your “this game is expected to launch in late 2019.” I don’t care what The Man says. Reader, I should mention that I’m flanked by two hired goons named – sorry, I feel awful for not asking: what are your names? – Edith and Duncan, lovely to meet you, from Big Video Games. The Man has told them to “show her what happens to people who post about games already out.”

But for you, reader dear, I shall risk life, limb, and possible friendship – like, you seem cool, Edith, and I won’t hold my impending finger-breaking against you so if you wanna hang out some time…? – to tell you that Space Run Galaxy [official site], a tower defense-ish game about building a beefy space-truck to haul space-cargo, is out now.

Space-cargo needs to get from space-A to space-B, see, and you have a spaceship. Space isn’t the safest place, so you need to build your ship (snapping blocks together) with weapons, shields, and of course cargo space to get through quickly and safely. You build your own mobile tower defense platform and roll through space, basically, facing everything from space-pirates to giant space-squid.

The first Space Run rekindled Adam’s interest in tower defense games for diverting from the usual genre course. This sequel introduces big ole boss bottles (remember that space-squid?), new types of cargo with their own risks and rewards, and online bits like player-created contracts and a market to trade goods with other truckers.

Made by Passtech Games, Space Run Galaxy is out now on Steam. It’ll normally cost £14.99/19,99€/$19.99 but currently has a 15% launch discount.

Anyway, I can see Edith and Duncan are doing that cool neck cracking thing goons do in the movies – so cool! – so I’ll leave you with the launch trailer:

16 Comments

1 – no pause makes the game more ‘frantic clickfest’ than ‘strategy game’
2 – it gets samey and dull pretty fast

From what I’ve read, this is more of the same so that’s me out, I’m afraid…

Seriously – I get their decision on ‘real time’ decision – I just don’t think it was a wise one (and I’m far from alone, half the reviews of the first and many of the reviews of the 2nd mention this!!)

i need help i buy the game on steam and its in rusian so i managed whit trying some stuff to play it but its like playing world of warcraft in china i have alot of help of the english talks in it but the discriptions suck balls and i dont buy a game to play it in a unown langwitch plz hook me op on a english verzion of it

In the first one the no pause was acceptable because the waves weren’t random, you could memorise and optimise your setup accordingly.

There were ways in effect to mitigate it. In the second? Yeeeenope. Random waves now, and the insane sizes of the ships mean you’re now into frantic APM territory. Tactical pause would have been a must.

It turns the game into something that’s -not- fun. It’s much more like work as opposed to fun. The first one had something original in it, and the fixed nature of the waves meant it played much like TD but with the added spice that you were “on the move” so you had a sort of rolling timer that you were fighting against.

This one randomises the wave configurations, which means there’s no way to accurately optimise or predict what’s coming and as a result your only option is frantic clicky clicky APM. That turns the game from interesting if somewhat frantic strategy at times into chaotic mess.

No. No thank you.

There’s so, so many better options around for TD these days, and having random waves is definitely not a pre-req for a good TD, a good challenge (like in Defence Grid) is what you’re after. I’d suggest looking at Terrorhedron, that’s a -really- good example of Tower Defence (and it’s genuinely original, and a bit mindbending).

Second Defender’s Quest. I also recommend Gemcraft, for putting some interesting spins on the usual by allowing you to mix-up custom tower effects, and having skills that really do allow you to change how you play in a big way. Only the most recent chapter is available on Steam, but (a) that’s obviously the one with the best UI anyway and (b) you can play the whole series via armorgames without needing to sign up or pay anything.

I love the game, but no pause does make it ridiculously hard. I’m probably just bad at it though. I like the choice of action game instead of thoughtful tower defense; you can restart the level instantly and it feels like pausing would make it a little too easy by comparison.

My biggest issue is a random “banging” noise that happens in the menus that sounds like it’s coming from behind you. For the first fifteen minutes of the game I had to keep checking someone wasn’t breaking into my house.